I have a small business. I am fortunate to be competing in the relatively free market for Macintosh software, a market that is comparatively unburdened by excessive government regulation and monopoly control. This is a temporary window of opportunity that exists only because Apple’s market share is, so far but not for much longer, small enough to have flown under the radar.

The government is after me. The city, county, state, and federal governments all have their hand out. They all want a piece. They all want my money, which they had nothing to do with earning. I already pay property taxes and sales taxes and income taxes. My business is on the internet. I don’t use any city, county, or state services. Now they want city business tax, county business tax, state business tax, city business property tax, double federal payroll taxes (employer plus employee), and they all want voluminous paper work that takes up more of my time than I can afford, but which is trivial for large corporations with legal and accounting departments. Fortunately I don’t, yet, have to worry about the EPA or OSHA or the NLRB.

The majority of federal business regulations are designed to enable large corporations to crush small competitors. This is inevitable. Congressional politics is funded by lobbyists and campaign contributions funded by large corporations.

I might as well be cooking meth. As far as the government is concerned, small business is a criminal enterprise. All small business men and women in this country feel more or less the same way. We all pretty much vote Republican, but it doesn’t do us any good, because for one, there are not enough of us, and for two, the Republicans are almost as corrupt as the Democrats.

Microsoft, for example, crushed competitors by using their desktop operating system monopoly to make competitor software vendors’ application software fail to function in Windows altogether, or at least not as well as Microsoft application software. Windows was purposely designed to generate error messages and crashes for non-Microsoft applications.

The Microsoft Internet Explorer browser software became dominant, putting NetScape out of business, by making IE free and an integral part of the Windows operating system, and by coercing hardware vendors to bundle Windows with all PC hardware purchases. Hardware vendors are forced, by contract, to pay for Windows, including Internet Explorer, whether they want to or not, for every hardware system that they sell. So, of course, they bundle it. God forbid that they should alienate Microsoft.

This is patently illegal. It is every bit as egregious as John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil competition-crushing illegal practices at the turn of the 20th century, whereby the railroads that Standard Oil owned charged higher rates for non-Standard Oil shipments. But Microsoft has been given a pass by the U.S. Justice Department, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, because of the money poured into D.C. lobbyists and Congressional campaign coffers.

Small businesses like mine are only allowed to exist in small niches that have not yet been targeted by government-supported big business. Once the market has reached a size to be of interest to the big boys, it very quickly is no longer a free market. Once it is worth doing, the small fish are driven out of business by the big fish, with the government as their indispensible ally. Large government-connected corporations are no more fans of free enterprise than the most fanatical Marxist.

I wish that the federal government were a check against the monopolistic practices of large corporations. That would be great, but the reality is that the government is the friend of the monopolist, and I fear it always will be. Given that reality, as a small business man, I would rather that the government stayed out of it entirely. The big guys will continue to crush small competitors ruthlessly, but at least they would no longer have the government helping them.

I am forced to conclude that the only solution to the inevitable dominance of monopolistic control of the free market, is less government interference. The tiny mammalian shrew-like creatures that eventually prevailed against the dinosaurs did so without government intervention. Apple’s eventual triumph over the Microsoft dinosaur has and will occur without the help of the government. The inevitable demise of the geriatric music, TV, movie, and newspaper monopolies will happen in spite of federal legislation paid for by said industries, thanks to the internet, which has not yet been overtaken by the disingenuous cries for net neutrality and “fairness”.

In the long run, serving the customer will prevail over screwing the customer, because the customers are not as stupid as they look. The government can only delay the inevitable. That is my naive hope and prayer.

Candace, Sarah, Al, Morgan, and, last but not least, Candace’s mother, Mary.

When I lost my last job in San Francisco, I knew that I would never have another. Why hire an old guy who wants too much money, when you can hire a young, energetic guy for half as much? That was the conclusion my employers arrived at, and I don’t blame them. I would do the same in their place.

I like this quote about employment in the 1950′s from this article:

If you could read, follow simple instructions, and settle into a routine, you could find a job in the post-war economy.

That is no longer true. Nowadays you need to have a real skill. It can be a blue-collar skill like welding, plumbing, electrical, hvac, or it can be a white collar skill, computer programming, bio-engineering, etc., but it has to be something.

It was 2004. I was 60 years old and unemployable. But I did have skills, over 30 years worth of developing software, on every computer and every computer language of any consequence during those three decades. So I set to work on the best idea I could come up with and developed MailSteward for the Macintosh.

It was something I wanted for myself, a searchable, relational database of all my email forever. I turned my crude UNIX script into a commercial Mac application and started selling it on the internet. For the first two years, sales were $200 to $300 a month. It was too buggy, not enough features. I worked constantly late into the night, fixing bugs, adding features. We lived on savings, and when that was gone, credit cards.

After two years, it was finally good enough that people started buying it. Now it brings in, gross, about $90,000 a year. I’m still working on it all the time, though not as frenetically as in the past. And I’ve added three more apps to the mix, FileMyFiles, DiskRefresher, and WordWrapper.

The way capitalism, real capitalism, works is that everyone has to provide something of value to other people, that they will pay for with money. Money, when it is not being inflated away by the government, being a store of value. That’s capitalism in a nutshell. We used to be a fairly capitalistic society, but not anymore. Nobody is, but there are now a few nations who are more capitalistic than we are, which never used to be the case.

It is very much my sense, though I am too lazy to back it up with researched evidence, that there is a rising percentage of the adult population who are not providing anything of economic value. A certain amount of that is inevitable. We must care for the old, the sick, and the disabled. But somewhere along the line there is a tipping point, when there are two few people providing value, and too many people not providing, but consuming that value.

I think we are past, at, or quickly approaching that tipping point, here in the United States, in Europe, and in the world.

Here is what Jin Liqun, chairman of China’s vast sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation, had to say about Europe’s request to borrow some more from China:

The root cause of trouble is the overburdened welfare system, built up since the Second World War in Europe – the sloth- inducing, indolence-inducing labour laws.

In other words, no, we are not lending you bums any more money. China has its own problems, big time, but these are words of wisdom.

Why are medical professional who are not M.D.’s not allowed to perform many more of the routine tasks currently reserved for doctors?
    Answer: because of government regulations.

Why are the prices not posted on the wall of every walk-in clinic in the U.S.?
    Answer: because of government regulations.

Why can’t I buy health insurance across state lines so that I could buy a policy offered in Tennessee even though I live in New York?
    Answer: because of government regulations.

Why aren’t there more openings in medical schools to train more doctors?
    Answer: because of government regulations.

Why can’t a group of doctors get together and build a hospital?
    Answer: They’re not allowed to. Government regulations.

Why are inexpensive, minimal, catastrophic health insurance policies not available in all 50 states?
    Answer: because of government regulations.

Why do individuals not get the same tax break for health insurance costs as businesses get?
    Answer: because of government regulations.

Why can’t I buy a health insurance policy that just covers what I want to have covered?
    Answer: because of government regulations.

Why is health care so non-competitive and expensive?
    Answer: because of government regulations.

What is the Democratic Party’s answer to out of control health care costs?
    Answer: more government regulations.

I was on the debate team when I was in college many years ago. I was pretty good. I’ve never run for political office, and I have no illusions about being qualified to be President of the United States. But let me tell you, I would wipe the floor with all of the clowns who are currently auditioning for the job, and that includes Barack Obama.

What the Hell!? These guys, and gal, don’t have anything else to do besides dress well and give plausible one minute sound bite answers to predictably inane questions. And they can’t do it!

If Barry doesn’t have his teleprompter, he’s completely at sea! He doesn’t have a clue about history or economics or what language they speak in Austria.

Rick Perry can’t even memorize a simple retort to a Mitt Romney attack, that he was coached to expect.

Romney’s the best of the lot, and he’s such an obviously phony, over cautious, unprincipled robot, that he’s only in the running because of the quality of the competition.

I saw Herman Cain, whom I actually like, being interviewd by Chris Wallace, and he obviously had never heard of the Palestinian right of return controversy. And he’s running for President of the United States!?

I like Ron Paul on economics, but let’s face it, he’s nuts about everything else, and I don’t even want to discuss Huntsman or Santorum or Bachmann. Gingrich is the only one whom I would consider to be a worthy opponent in a debate, but c’mon, he’s not going to be President.

What is going on? Is this it? Are these the toughest, smartest, most visionary leaders available in the U.S.A.? No wonder Chris Christie’s phone is ringing off the hook.

As the son of a school teacher (English and Latin), I can’t help but wince at Governor Palin’s syntax. As a midwesterner, I can’t help but find her accent endearing. But that is all beside the point, I hope. I honestly don’t know if she would be a good President. Collectively, we (The U.S. voting population) are obviously not very good at Presidential prognostication. Witness Barry Obama.

Sarah Palin was a very good governor of the sparsely populated state of Alaska, until the liberal haters drove her out of office. She resigned for the good of Alaska. It is such a blessing when you get to do the right thing and further your own career at the same time.

I attended Kindergarten in Anchorage, before Alaska was a state, while my father was stationed there. We lived in a basement apartment owned by the slumlord of Anchorage, Wally Hickel. Mr. Hickel later served three terms as governor of Alaska, and was also NIxon’s Secretary of the Interior. Of course I am proud of the association.

Governor Palin gave a speech in Iowa recently. The theme was crony capitalism. It was the most honest, relevant speech by anyone in the Presidential race from either party so far. It was right up there with Governor Perry’s courageous blindness to Emperor Social Security’s (designed by Ponzi) new clothes.

But Sarah was much more analytical. Here is the text and video of Governor Palin’s speech.

Ron Paul is the only other honest politician extant, at least as far as economics is concerned. He is way too weak on war-mongering for my taste, not to mention his wacky libertarianism, but you can’t have everything, and Governor Palin looks very healthy.

That’s my ideal ticket. I know it can’t possibly happen, so Perry/Rubio will be fine with me. Or even (shudder) Romney/Huntsman.

The main thing is to get rid of this pathetic clown who had no business running for President in the first place.

Listening to the commentary on the early rounds of the U.S. Open (tennis), I listened to a bunch of speculation about why Li Na, winner of the French Open, has not won two consecutive matches since then. There was this and that reason put forth, but the elephant in the room was never mentioned.

I’m a big tennis fan, so I know who Li Na is, but many of my 4 readers may not. It doesn’t really matter. Tennis is not the point. Li Na won the Women’s French Open title this year. This is a big deal, like about one fourth of winning the Super Bowl. She is one of the best women tennis players in the world.

She is also a citizen of the PRC, the People’s Republic of China, i.e., red China. She has become one of the Chinese Communist Party’s most valuable assets, for international branding as well as internal pride. Of course she doesn’t live or train in China anymore, but she is nevertheless controlled by the Party.

Not long ago, the Party decided to let her start keeping a substantial portion of the money she earned. Not as much as she would keep as a citizen of Monaco of course, but still, she gets to be rich. I have no way of knowing if it is true, but I would be surprised if there were not a Party member in her entourage, as there always is, living in every tiny neighborhood of Shanghai, a city I have visited several times.

If Li Na is not insane, she wants to leave the PRC and become a free citizen of a Western democracy, not only for more money, but for the freedom to be anybody and do anything. Assuming this is so (she doesn’t look crazy to me), the Communist Party in China will do whatever it is in their power to do to keep that from happening.

Is her money in Switzerland, or is it in China? At the very least, the Party will steal her money and threaten all of her relatives remaining in the PRC, with extreme unpleasantness should she dare to escape. The Berlin wall was not the last of the Communist prisons.

Of course, in the TV commentary, there was no hint of any such factors possibly affecting her tennis game since the French Open. That wouldn’t be polite to our Chinese U.S. Treasury bond holders, and consumer/industrial product manufacturers.

I don’t care what any Presidential candidate thinks about:

abortion
gay marriage
global warming
evolution

My dream candidate for President is not someone who agrees with me about all of these subjects. My dream candidate for President is someone who believes that none of these matters are in any way a part of his or her job description. That makes Rick Perry my first choice. I only agree with his positions on three quarters of the above listed issues. He is my first choice because he said, “I’ll work to try to make DC as inconsequential in your life as I can.” A sentiment worthy of my hero Calvin Coolidge.

My worst nightmare of a President is one who believes that abortion, gay marriage, global warming, and evolution are problems that require the attention of the Federal government. I fear we have just such a chief executive in the White House currently.

The press is of course obsessed with Governor Perry’s and Congresswoman Bachmann’s opinions about these irrelevant questions, because the press and the Democrats always do their darndest to portray all popular Republicans as dangerously ignorant dunces. They have always done this, from Abraham Lincoln to Dwight Eisenhower to Barry Goldwater to Ronald Reagan to Sarah Palin to Rick Perry.

Until they’re dead. Then the press and the Democrats pine for the days when Republicans were so much smarter and more reasonable than they are today.

I pine for the days when Republicans like Lincoln threw copperhead Democrats in jail for treason. Only when absolutely necessary of course.

I want a Federal government that maintains a strong dollar, provides for the national defense against enemies foreign and domestic, enforces the Bill of Rights and Amendments 13-15 for all American citizens, and does the absolute minimum necessary to keep the free market as free as possible. Leave the rest of it up to state and local governments and the free citizens of the Republic. Any attempt to expand the power of the national government beyond this should ideally be subject to the extreme skepticism of an alert polis.

I know this is an idle fancy. As Devo says:

Freedom of choice
Is what you got
Freedom from choice
Is what you want

We are no longer primarily a country of people who want to be free. We have become a nation of people who want to be taken care of.

Having said that, President Perry better not mess with my social security and medicare, or my son’s unemployment checks and food stamps, or my mother-in-law’s veteran benefits, or my mother’s U.S. Air Force widow’s health benefits, or there will be Hell to pay, Hell being a place in whose existence Rick Perry may actually believe.

Me and Victor would order the green peyote buttons, several dozen at a time, from Lawson’s Texas Cactus Gardens. They came with planting instructions, but we never planted any of them. This was 1965 in Iowa City, Iowa. The buttons cost a quarter apiece. When a shipment came in, we would put out the word to our friends who would come over to “the mission” for a peyote party. The mission was what we called the crash pad where I and a bunch of other people were living on communal pots of Kraft macaroni and cheese dinners.

We knew nothing about peyote. Victor had read something somewhere about it and found out you could order it through the mail. So we did. Somewhere we learned that you should first clean out the white fuzz that supposedly contained small amounts of strychnine.

Everyone would sit around with sour expressions on their face, munching on fresh, green peyote buttons. The only record we had at the mission to play on our cheap portable record player, was Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited. I must have heard that record at least a hundred times, in all states of consciousness.

These peyote parties became a fixture in Iowa City for a couple of years. It was never a large crowd. Everybody knew everybody very well, as well as it is possible for people as young as we were, still blank slates, to know each other.

I married Susan that year and soon after we had a son, Jason. I was working at Component Homes on a pre-fab housing assembly line. It was brutal work for a 6’2″” 145 lb weakling. Ten hour days, and a half hour for lunch. I would go to a nearby bar and order a boilermaker, a bottle of beer and a shot of bourbon, and that would be lunch. After work I would buy a quart of beer to drink when I got home. I loved Jason. I would hold him in my arms and carry him around our apartment, pointing out its features and explaining the world to him.

After a little while, we moved to Ames so that I could finish my degree at Iowa State. I needed to make up two flunked PE courses, a beginning accounting course, and a sophomore literature course. I worked at the Student Union, washing dishes and setting up chairs, and Susan’s folks helped us out. After I graduated, I got a job as a programmer trainee at the Iowa State Highway Commission, which was not far from the house we were renting. And I got it because of peyote.

One of the regulars at the Iowa City parties was a guy who had a girl friend in Ames who used to come over to Iowa City for the parties. She was beautiful and smart and sweet. Everyone loved her. And she worked as a computer programmer at the Iowa State Highway Commission. She hipped me to, and recommended me for, the job. I took a programmer’s aptitude test and scored 100% in half the alotted time, and my career in software development was launched.

Peyote got me another job, many years later. Sometime in 1995, when we were living in San Francisco, in a little row house in the Sunset district, I got involved in the Native American Church, attending all-night peyote ceremonies in a tipi. I invited my old friend, John, from The Farm communal days to one of these meetings. At that time he was the manager of the San Francisco Chronicle’s newborn, experimental website, The Gate.

Before the meeting we talked about it. The Gate was John’s only topic of conversation in those days. He was having trouble finding a tech guy who was competent and communicative and trustworthy. I gave him a detailed run-down on just exactly what kind of person he needed. Coincidentally it was a perfect description of myself. In the morning when we emerged from the tipi, all peyotied up, having undergone an intense bonding experience, he offered me the job of Technical Director. I was there for five years and built the first major newspaper website’s technical underpinnings, almost single-handedly, from the ground up. It was a major milestone in my checkered career.

It was 1966 in Iowa City. Susan and I had just gotten married and our first child was on the way. We were flat broke. Victor said he knew where I could get a job. He had worked there before, at the Heinz plant in Muscatine. It was tomato season, and anybody could get a job there. Victor and I worked there for two weeks, which made us some of their most reliable employees. Most guys didn’t last that long.

We worked 14 hour days on the assembly line, stacking boxes of ketchup onto palettes. The pay was $1.65 an hour, no extra for overtime. We slept in the barracks and ate in the company cafeteria. A charge for room and board was deducted from our pay. Ketchup and mustard were free though.

The barracks had a communal shower and a big room with bunk beds. The migrant workers in those days weren’t Mexicans. They were middle-aged white guys who followed the ripening of fruits and vegetables around the country, from Oregon to Iowa, what we used to call hobos. It was hard to get much sleep for the constant sound of coughing all night.

The compound was surrounded by a high chain link fence topped with barbed wire that pointed inward. After our shift, Victor and I would crawl under the fence at a hole we had found, crawl over a culvert across the creek, and hike into town. We only had time for one beer, but it was worth it. Then back under the fence and into bed. If everyone else was more or less asleep, sometimes we would go into the shower room and smoke a joint. The sound of giggling in the shower room and two guys coming out sometimes got us a few funny looks.

We had three guys on our box-stacking crew, me, Victor, and another guy. Victor had worked there before, and he had a system. By working together and stacking the boxes in a certain pattern, it made it so much more efficient that we could do it with only two men. So we took turns wandering around the plant, stealing pickles, having a smoke.

Eventually the foreman noticed that we were doing the job with only two guys, so he came over and took our other guy away. Victor told me to just stop and let the boxes fall off the end of the line and smash on the floor. Pretty soon we had a pile of cardboard, ketchup, and broken glass at our feet. When the foreman came around again, Victor threw up his hands and said, “We just can’t handle it with only two guys.” We immediately got our third man returned to us, and life was good again.